10 Interesting facts about Estonia and the Estonian language

For people interested in visiting or learning more about Estonia, here’s ten interesting facts to get started with:

1. The name Estonia comes from the “Ests” or Aesti whom inhabited the area in the first century AD, other sources have historically referred to Estonia as Eistland, Estland, Estia and Hestia.

2. Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic languages, is closely related to Finnish and distantly to Hungarian.

3. Estonia regained its independence in 1991, shortly after the “Singing Revolution”, a human chain of more than two million people stretching through Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

4. Estonia borders Russia, Latvia and is only 80 km away from Finland, reachable by ferries going from Tallinn to Helsinki. The average elevation is 50 meters (164 feet), the highest point is the Suur Munamagi at 318 meters (1,043 feet), contains over 1,500 islands and islets, 1,400 lakes and forests cover nearly 50% of the land area.

5. People in Estonia have the second highest literacy rate worldwide at 99.8%.

6. Estonia has the biggest collection of folk songs worldwide, with written records of 133,000 folk songs. The Estonian Song Festivals take place every five years and have over 100,000 people participating.

7. Estonia has the highest concentration of meteorite craters per land area in the world.

8. Regarding Estonia economics, Estonia was the first country in Europe to incorporate the flat tax, increasingly trading with Finland, Sweden and Germany and as of 2012, Estonia is the only euro member with a budget surplus and likewise one of the least indebted countries in Europe.

9. Popular cuisine fare include different types of fish, (herring and sprats), soups including Leivasupp, pork and potatoes, rhubarb pies and black rye bread with everything.

10. There are more than 20 castles around Estonia, most dating back to the 12th to 14th centuries.

Share content with others in Estonia on your own networks

Here are some of the key benefits you get from using an Odysen solution:

Have separate networks for different groups, helpful to keep content focused for each. This could be separate networks for friends, family and professional or work environments.

Organize content with intuitive folders, such as adding ones for travel or locations, projects, topic, planning events and activities.

Within folders you can include content in the applications, such as actions, notes, photos, graphics, videos, audio files, websites and blogs.

Get started and invite others for free with the Basic plan, including the ability to create networks, use the applications, and initial storage for your files.

Learn more about having your own networks in Estonia, including using the applications, languages available, solution examples and relevant blog articles.

Published by

Matt

Founder and CEO of Odysen, involved with different writing and music freelancing activities, and have previously worked for larger technology businesses in the US, Europe and Asia.
View all posts by Matt